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Marketing Committee agrees to Christmas lighting test

Courthouse lighting should be 2/3 complete this year

The Logan County Marketing Committee agreed Tuesday to a lighting test for proposed improvements to the Logan County Courthouse holiday lights, shown at the 2013 Light the Night event. (Sara Waite / Sterling Journal-Advocate)

STERLING — It may be July, but Christmas was on the minds of the Logan County Commissioners on Tuesday. During a work session Dave Donaldson and Rocky Samber met with members of the Chamber of Commerce Marketing Committee and others to discuss a Christmas lighting proposal for the courthouse submitted by Collins Control.

Those present at the meeting included Kim Sellers, executive director of the chamber, as well as Alexis Ertle, Cheryl Walraven, Marilee Johnson, Barbara Baker, Jay Lee and Laurie Jones.

The commissioners and the committee agreed to move forward with the proposal submitted by Mike Haddorff, of Collins Control, to provide a test demonstration to test the effects of what is being proposed. Total cost of the proposal is $3,500 and includes the relocation of several current fixtures and installation of one temporary 10-foot RGB on the upper knee wall on the north side.

Donaldson said the commissioners wanted to get the committee's opinion on the proposal, to make sure they thought it was an adequate way to spend $3,500 out of the $5,000 that committee members and others presented to the county in March.

Ertle asked about the original $44,000 proposal Collins Control brought to the county last year and whether the $3,500 would be in addition to that. Donaldson said the $3,500 would be a portion of the $44,000.

Samber noted the $44,000 didn't include the whole project.

"That $40,000 did not include any of the body the courthouse, it only included from that knee wall up, which was astounding in my estimation," he said. "The $44,000 bid did not include these window illuminations, because he didn't have the technology."

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He agreed that using the $3,500 for a test would be a wise decision.

"I think it would be preventative in nature, so to speak, to spend this money, at least we can see what we're going to get if we do engage in such a project," Samber said.

Ertle pointed out the sooner Haddorff can come out and do the test, the better, because he will need to have enough time to order the lights and get them set up.

She also recommended they let Haddorff know that they would like to at least get the front done, because the lighting is to be 2/3 done this year and complete next year. Ertle estimated the cost for 2/3 of the project to be around $30,000 and suggested they Haddorff "we have $30,000 to spend through this year, what can you do for us with that $30,000?"

Samber noted the county only budgeted $10,000 for the project this year; no money was budgeted last year, but $3,500 was spent out of the contingency fund. Ertle questioned how the commissioners decided what amount to budget.

"In previous meetings we talked about it being $20,000 and we were going match what you guys were going to raise and that was $10,000," Samber said.

Baker asked the commissioners if they ever asked the company what the cost of the whole project would be. Samber said they hadn't, because there were some things Collins Control didn't think they would be able to do because it would affect the architecture.

Samber asked if the committee would be able to raise more money.

Sellers said they went to the Lodging Tax Board earlier this week, to see if they would be willing to contribute some money. "They really thought that it was a slippery slope if they changed (their bylaws) to include capital improvements," she said. Money from the board is to be used specifically for advertising and marketing. With that in mind the board would be happy to provide money to advertise if the committee does another Light the Lights event like they did last year.

Ertle noted the committee has talked about doing another event for Black Friday, like they did last year. However, this year they want to "focus more on the event and getting people to come here, come to the town to spend money and not so much of fundraising for the lights."

They're looking at calling it Old Fashioned Christmas at the Courthouse and having musical entertainment by the Dickens Carolers, carriage rides and a chili cook-off, which cookers would pay to participate in.

The committee will still be able to raise some money for the lights by selling another mystery book and Christmas ornaments and they will still take donations for the lights, "but we don't want to do such a hoopla about the lights if we're not going to have a bunch of the lights," Ertle said.

She pointed out that the total cost to complete the entire restoration of the courthouse with historical lighting, $50,000, for example, would not be a lot compared to the $2.7 million in matching funds the county provided for the renovation project.

"It is a landmark and it is a tourist attraction and I think when you start to look at the people that would return to see it, you eventually will get your money back," she said.

Samber pointed out paying $44,000 for the original proposal didn't seem like good fiscal management, because the proposal didn't include the body of the courthouse.

Johnson asked if they should considering getting bids from other lighting companies. Donaldson noted Collins Control was the company that worked with the State Historical Society, "so it's not like we just go to the Yellow pages; these are specialists."

Johnson asked if the State Historical Society could possibly grant any funding for the lighting. Donaldson said they won't because the holiday lighting wasn't part of the original courthouse structure.

Samber suggested they have the test done and have the company give them a bid for just the north side of courthouse, which he estimated would cost $20,000 to $30,000.

"I think that would an awesome goal to shoot for, is if we could get that north side done," Ertle said, adding that in the past that was that area was where most of the decorations were, "it was the dome and the front and the evergreen trees that were the big focal points."

She suggested Haddorff bring an estimate for the cost to do what he plans to do for the test, so they can see if they can afford everything and if they can't do everything they'll look at doing the things that will have the biggest impact.

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